With timely shots and nonstop hustle plays that led to pivotal second chances, Jalen Brunson and the New York Knicks had an answer for every charge the Atlanta Hawks made in Game 1 on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Brunson scored a game-high 28 points with five rebounds and seven assists to lead the Knicks to a 113-102 win and a 1-0 lead in this first-round series. Karl-Anthony Towns added 25 points, eight rebounds, four assists and three blocks, and Josh Hart scored 11 points with a game-high 14 rebounds for the Knicks.<\/p>\n
The Knicks held the Hawks to only 47 second-half points and just 43.7 percent shooting for the game. New York beat Atlanta at its own game, outscoring the Hawks 22-13 in fast-break points and 13-7 in second-chance points.<\/p>\n
Game 2 is Monday.<\/p>\n
Knicks need to dominate more inside<\/p>\n
The Knicks did what they were supposed to do, but not in the way many expected.<\/p>\n
Coming into this series against the Hawks, a team lacking in size at the center position, the Knicks\u2019 most clear advantage rested on the shoulders of Karl-Anthony Towns, Mitchell Robinson and the offensive-rebounding battle. New York won, though, because Jalen Brunson was unguardable in the first quarter, OG Anunoby couldn\u2019t miss and Towns eventually did what very few do better: Take and make 3s. Towns had a meh first 2 1\/2 quarters offensively but finished with 25 points.<\/p>\n
Going forward, the Knicks will need a more dominant interior presence, particularly on the defensive glass, to get Atlanta out of here sooner rather than later. Furthermore, the Hawks likely walked away thinking it can still primarily guard Towns with a center, which is usually a tough task for most teams that use that tactic. Guarding Towns with a center allows the Hawks to use their best defensive resources to hound Brunson. New York, though, still found a way to make it work despite Towns\u2019 early offensive struggles.<\/p>\n
The Knicks also need to find a way to improve the impact of Robinson, who had only four rebounds with none of them on the offensive end, which he does better than anyone else in the NBA.<\/p>\n
Maybe they should consider playing Robinson earlier in quarters to avoid teams fouling him when the Knicks are in the bonus. Atlanta used the Hack-a-Mitch method to play Robinson, a poor free-throw shooter, off the floor. He made just 1 of 4 free throws. The Hawks lost the total rebounding battle, but they won it on the offensive glass, which no one would have predicted coming in. \u2014 James L. Edwards<\/p>\n
Hawks have to get out and run<\/p>\n
What if this series isn\u2019t what we thought it was?<\/p>\n
Coming in, the idea was that the Knicks would hammer the Hawks on the offensive glass, while the Hawks\u2019 turnover-forcing and end-to-end speed would give them a transition advantage. It didn\u2019t work out that way in Game 1, and what\u2019s telling is that it also didn\u2019t work out that way in the playoff-like meeting between these teams in Atlanta 12 days ago.<\/p>\n
In both games, it was the Knicks who finished with an advantage in fast-break points, 12-9 in New York\u2019s 108-105 win April 6 and a staggering 22-13 Saturday \u2014 even with the Hawks playing \u201cprevent offense\u201d the last six minutes.<\/p>\n
On the flip side, New York\u2019s Mitchell Robinson was \u201chack-a\u2019d\u201d out of the game in the third quarter and played only 15 minutes, grabbing just four boards and muting the Knicks\u2019 size advantage off the bench. Robinson grabbed 12 boards in 20 minutes on April 6, but the Hawks won the offensive rebounding battle in both games.<\/p>\n
Atlanta had a 19-12 edge in offensive boards April 6 and an 8-6 advantage in Game 1. Those rebounds don\u2019t tell the whole story: The Hawks even drew three loose-ball fouls on the Knicks in short succession in the fourth quarter, putting Atlanta in the bonus for most of the final stanza.<\/p>\n
And yet, it didn\u2019t matter. The possession battle was plus-9 for Atlanta across the two games, but the scoreboard favored the Knicks each time. The net takeaway: Winning the rebound battle is nice, but if the Hawks can\u2019t create more easy transition opportunities, it won\u2019t matter. Atlanta scored 27 fast-break points against the Knicks the one time it beat them this year, a 111-99 win in New York in early January. That\u2019s the formula. \u2014 John Hollinger<\/p>\n
Jalen Johnson must step up for Atlanta<\/p>\n
CJ McCollum\u2019s hot shooting night kept Game 1 close, but whether or not the series has even a chance of swinging Atlanta\u2019s way depends on Jalen Johnson.<\/p>\n
Johnson got off to a slow start Saturday, finishing the first half with 10 points, four rebounds and two assists. In the second half, he added 13 points, three rebounds and one assist. Johnson did a lot to keep the Hawks close late, but with a relatively quiet fourth quarter, it wasn\u2019t a strong enough performance for a team that absolutely needs to get a win on the road.<\/p>\n
In addition to doing everything they can to try to stop Brunson from going off early, the Hawks will need Johnson to score consistently and often, create shots for teammates and crash the glass to limit extra possessions for the Knicks. Basically, Atlanta needs him to show why he was an All-Star. \u2014 Shakeia Taylor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With timely shots and nonstop hustle plays that led to pivotal second chances, Jalen Brunson and the New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":716862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3768],"tags":[208,7,304,6,1136,191,3810,3806],"class_list":{"0":"post-716861","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-knicks","8":"tag-atlanta-hawks","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-knicks","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-knicks","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkknicks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116456655647813793","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=716861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}